It seems as though teaching is in his blood. His dad was a teacher of biology as well as a school counselor. His sister and his wife are math teachers.

Influenced by his family, then, English Teacher Ryan Buck decided to go into teaching, which has also led to three masters– one from St. Xavier University in teaching leadership and two from Concordia University (education leadership supervision and curriculum and instruction).

“All through my life I have had family, wife, friends and past teachers inspire me to impact others as well and teach,” said Buck.

Buck attempts to engage his classes by showing enthusiasm and a lot of personality in order to create a classroom environment where students look forward to coming to class every day.

“He has energy and passion for teaching that is contagious, and [he] is able to develop relationships with freshmen through seniors,” said English Teacher Ernie Billittier.

Buck is a long-time teaching veteran at MHS, as he is in his 13th year. Each day, his class starts with at least 10 minutes of reading, followed by a poem, so students can get used to how authors use language and so students can also be inspired.

Buck said his goal is to build student confidence in reading and writing through practice every day.

He also uses book talks to advance his students’ reading lives and incorporates a mini lesson on writing that ends with the students revising and asking questions about their own work.

“This class brought a positive experience [because I was] always pushed in both reading and writing compared to previous English classes,” said Junior Mason Schaller who was a former Honors English 3 student of Buck’s.

Buck was one of the first advocates with a few other English teachers to introduce choice reading as a dominant focus of his class curriculum.

Buck went this direction because he said he wants students to be inspired to read more and to help improve their reading habits.

“[Buck] is tired of having students read some of the book some of the time. [He] tries to get students invested in reading through choice reading,” said English Teacher Mike Dayton.

Another quality that makes Buck different is that he doesn’t use letter grades. Buck wants students to focus on improvement and how they meet with a rubric, not a grade.

“Students should be graded on what they know and are graded against a standard compared to their whole work being deduced to a letter grade. I don’t like having students being labeled like a ‘piece of meat,’” said Buck, “Students play the game of school [by] doing minimal effort to get the grade and don’t focus on improvement.”

This has led some of his students to push themselves in order to grow, rather than just to earn a grade.

“[Buck] didn’t grade you on how you were doing the assignment; you were graded on how you improved overall in the class,” said Junior Kevin Zawila.

Buck attempts to engage his classes by showing enthusiasm and a lot of personality in order to create a classroom environment where students look forward to coming to class every day.

“Buck is a person I enjoy working with on a daily basis and always brings the best out of others each and every day,” said Dayton, “And he makes you feel better every time you walk away.”